Go to the full site
download section of this page to locate the contents of the website in a
series of zip files. Unzip them into your local directory fotw.
Subdirectories images, flags, misc will be created as necessary.

Note that these zipped files are several MB in size each, with a total size
of over 1 GB. Should you want to move them between non-networked pc-s, or pc-s
on a relatively slow network, you're advised to copy the zipped files to a
memory stick to move them.

To look at your local copy of FOTW, open the file index.html in the
flags subdirectory.

Updates to the website are provided around the beginning of each month - check
back here for these monthly updates.

Download and unzip the following files into your FOTW directory (the
zip files contain path information that will automatically unzip them into a
folder called 'images', split into 26 sub-folders, a, b, c,...z)

Once you have unzipped all the files,
go to FOTW/flags/index.html and enjoy the flags. To keep your local
copy of FOTW up to date, come back here monthly to receive updates
(described below). These updates are generally provided about the
beginning of each month.

Note: In the event that the links above are unavailable, the download zip files
may also be accessed from:

To update your own local copy of FOTW, determine when your copy was last
updated (check the date on the index.html file). If it was updated last
month, you need only do step 1 here, if more than one month's update is
required, do step 2 as necessary. If you wish to delete files that are now inoperative in the directory, go to step 3.

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you
require more than one month's update, be sure to update the oldest material
first (i.e., do step 2 first).

All zip files are provided with path information included.
If you have "Use folder names" checked, they will automatically unzip into
the /flags/, /images/, /misc/ folders and sub-folders, as needed. You simply need to
download the files and unzip them into your FOTW directory.

STEP 3To clean up your directories by removing deleted files. The
following text files contain lists of files that became inoperative in the past
few months. These can be safely deleted from your local copy - but do be careful
about file names. File xx-yyyyy.gif may be dead, but replaced by file
xx_yyyyy.gif. Instructions for programmed deletion are contained in each file:

Editors and mirror operators may wish to update their copies of the site on a
more frequent basis. The website is normally updated on Saturdays, and a weekly
update is made available here on a weekly basis (again generally on Saturdays).
All zipfiles are built with path information included.

You could install error.html, to be served as the FotW error page for a 404 Not Found error.

Use the proper method to have your systems serve this page in case of a missing file. In most cases this will mean adding a line like
ErrorDocument 404 /flags/error.html to the -htaccess file.

Add to the header of error.html a <base > line to the absolute fotw/flags location of error.html. Without that, the links in the document will not work if, e.g., a missing image is reported.

Making your mirror an official one

After your mirror site is set up and freely available, you might like to
have it added to the list of FOTW official mirror
sites. Send a message to the FOTW Director
about your mirror of FotW. Your mirror will then be added to the list,
and you'll receive monthly e-mails announcing updates to the FotW files.
Your only duty will be to follow up on those announcements as described
above, to keep your mirror up to date.

Anything below the following line isnt part of the Flags of the World Website and was added by the hoster of this mirror.